Firms voice approval for digital dictation

SECRETARIES: Lewis Silkin, Nabarro Nathanson, and Rooks Rider embrace technology to slash hours of typing

Digital dictation is consolidating its lead over speech recognition in the battle of dictation softwares, as three City firms of varying sizes this week jumped on the digital bandwagon.

Lewis Silkin and Nabarro Nathanson have both installed Big Hand's Total Speech digital software, and Rooks Rider rolled out nFlow's DictaFlow package to 27 fee-earners in its property department.

This seems to be the latest in a trend of law firms moving to digital dictation but rejecting, for the time being, speech recognition software.

Earlier this year, City firm Ashurst Morris Crisp rolled out digital dictation technology across the entire firm, while SJ Berwin's property department has embraced it as well.

By rolling it out to 170 users, 38-partner Lewis Silkin has become one of the largest digital dictation sites in the country.

The digital software takes the place of traditional analogue tape by allowing a fee-earner to dictate into a PC-connected microphone and storing the words on a sound file in the firm's network.

The file is then instantly accessed by a secretary, who can type out the notes in an appropriate format.

Thomas Kaufmann, IT manager at Rooks Rider, said the initial pilot of digital dictation had been successful.

'The sound files can be accessed by a pool of typists, which has significantly speeded up the typing system,' he said.

'Secretaries can immediately see what work needs to be done and either do it themselves or allocate it to other members of the pool.'

He said the system had shaved off an average of two hours from each day's typing times.

Rooks Rider also piloted speech recognition software, which was less successful.

'Legal letters and contracts often contain words and figures which are too complicated for speech recognition software,' he said, adding that fee-earners 'were not very happy' with the technology.

'The cost was higher, and the benefits were not in proportion to the expense.'

Nabarro Nathanson is piloting Big Hand's Total Speech software across 50 fee-earners in its property and charities groups, and will also allow solicitors based in Reading to send dictations instantly to secretarial support when in London on business.

If the pilot is successful, the firm expects to roll out the software this year.

IT director Richard Elson said he hoped it would result in a quicker and more efficient turnaround of documents.

'The fact that when a lawyer returns to the office he has to pass his secretary a pile of tapes, while a computer sits idle on the desk behind him, strikes me as outmoded and highly inefficient,' he said.

l In other new product purchases by law firms, 25-partner home counties firm Taylor Walton has invested 500,000 in the joint Solicitec/SOS solution of Solicitec's case management system and SOS's Practice Manager.

l London entertainment firm Sheridans has replaced its Soloman Avenue practice management system with Timeslice's LAWMAN2000.

The firm has 60 users.

Victoria MacCallum